PROXIMITY OF 3 SCHOOLS COMPOUNDS TRAFFIC.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

For years, parents have complained that traffic before and after school at Mark Keppel Elementary School has been a nightmare.

While there's confusion in front of most elementary schools, the problem is compounded here because the school is located so close to Toll Middle School and Hoover High School on Glenwood Road.

Besides the normal hazards of students darting across the road and parents double parking to walk their children to the school gate, Keppel parents say they have to worry about speeding high schoolers, who come hurtling down Glenwood.

Christine Ghafouri said she and other Keppel parents have been trying to get the Glendale Unified School District and various departments of the city of Glendale to address the problem, but each bureaucracy keeps ``passing the buck'' to the others.

On Aug. 12 a group of Keppel parents made it clear to school and city officials they are serious about getting them to fix the situation. The parents picketed both Glendale City Hall and the offices of the Glendale Unified School District.

``Us moms aren't giving up this time,'' Ghafouri said.

The persistence, Ghafouri said, is being driven by fears that tragedy is imminent at the school.

``We don't want to see anybody get killed out there,'' Ghafouri said.

A car crash two weeks ago near the school shook up parents enough to start picketing City Hall at noon on one of the hottest days of the year.

Shortly after the incident, City Manager David Ramsay announced that the Glendale Police Department would increase patrols around the school and said he would meet with school district officials to figure out a solution.

``The city and the school district have proposed a number of solutions,'' Ramsay said. ``Unfortunately, we have not been able to reach consensus.''

Jim Brown, the school district's new superintendent, said he met with Keppel parents and other concerned residents Friday morning.

``If the problem hasn't been resolved in six years, that's unacceptable,'' Brown said, adding that the district will help the parents get action from the city. ``I'm not interested in passing the buck.''

But Brown said the problem goes beyond just the traffic congestion at the school.

``The behavior of adults dropping their kids to and from school is a problem,'' Brown said.

Ghafouri and friends have a variety of ideas about how to remedy the situation.

One idea is to make Glenwood Road one way during the time when parents are dropping off their children. Another is to create a loading zone in front of the school to keep traffic moving. Now parents are double parking in the street in order to get out of their cars and escort their children to the front door of the school.

Ghafouri said the parents are also proposing a system by which students who jaywalk across the street are ``white-slipped,'' meaning they have to bring home a note, which has to be signed by their parents. Students who are white-slipped are denied recess privileges, Ghafouri said.

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Photo: Pupils from Mark Keppel Elementary School run across Glenwood Road on Thursday, even with a crossing guard on duty to stop cars.

David Sprague/Daily News